Theme

Toscano Times Two

Ta da! Today, two Toscanos tickle your tastebuds! Each bag represents a different incarnation of Toscano, with the bag labeled Ecuador representing the most recent recipe we have been selling and the bag labeled Costa Rica the version that becomes available today (and by today I mean today, Thursday, March 20th).

Notes on the Coffees

Toscano Ecuador

The coffee that we had contracted for 2013 from the Fapecafes co-operative of Loja, Ecuador and which we were planning to sell as El Gavilán lacked the brightness and sweetness we expect from that coffee. While we opted not to feature the coffee as a straight, seasonal offering, we suspected it would taste good in Toscano. We also knew that the co-op’s members were struggling with coffee leaf rust and would be hard pressed to find another buyer for this coffee that didn’t meet CCC’s high standard but was still a far cry from average in value or quality. So we sacrificed our hopes for El Gavilán this year and bought coffee for Toscano and some really-great-but-really-small single-farmer lots.

Toscano Costa Rica

Between 2008, which was the last year in which we sold Cerro del Fuego (old-timers, you know what I’m talking about), and today your coffee department has tasted dozens of coffees from Costa Rica but declined to purchase any of them. Though some of these coffees have been delicious, they have also cost significantly more than coffees of comparable quality from elsewhere in the Americas, and the price-to-quality relationship tends to be especially skewed with organic coffees. In short, they haven’t been a good fit. So what makes today’s coffee different? The Costa Rican coffee that we will be using for Toscano for the next few weeks comes from six small estates (today’s is Linda Vista) located near the farm of a fellow named Tim O’Brien. We were introduced to Tim a few years ago as an employee of an importer we do business with and he is now building his own importing business. He’s excited and motivated to do good work for CCC, so we bought the best coffees he was offering from the 2012/2013 harvest both in order to get our relationship with him started on a good foot and to continue pushing to get better, sweeter coffees into Toscano. All of these coffees were dried with a focus on water activity and low moisture, which has helped their stability, and I think you’ll like the way they taste.

Rollout Dates and Availability

We just began selling Toscano (Costa Rica) today and we will probably only have it for two weeks or so before we move into another coffee. What coffee, you ask? Well, it depends on what arrives and tastes right in these next two weeks. Never a dull moment here in the coffee department.

A crew from Counter Culture went to Chico, CA, for Sierra Nevada'sBeer Camp in February: company president Brett Smith, Head Roaster Jeff McArthur, and Coffee Buyer & Quality Manager Tim Hill.

Counter Culture's beer team collaborated with our friends and neighbors at All About Beer Magazine—in anticipation of their 35th anniversary later this year—to brew a coffee-infused beer with Sierra Nevada as part of the brewery’s Beer Camp program.

Cold-brewed Haru coffee from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia, was added to an India pale ale brewed using hops that would impart tropical fruit flavors—Mosaic, Calypso, and an experimental hop currently known as 291. (This last one sounds a bit like SL-28 in name.)

Thanks to All About Beer and Sierra Nevada for having us. Check out All About Beer's video from the trip and stay tuned for more information on this over the next few months.

An unconventional point-to-point race, participants will convene at the starting line in Chapel Hill, NC—where Merge had its beginnings—and race to the finish in their current home, Durham, a few miles down the road from our roasting facility, Training Center, and HQ.

Most Counter Intelligence labs are held in Counter Culture's regional training centers, with one notable exception; since 2004, Counter Culture has hosted an Origin Field lab in Nicaragua. This week-long immersive course is a chance for baristas and other culinary professionals to experience the production side of our favorite beverage, and see first-hand the barriers and opportunities that exist in coffee farming, processing and export.

As I flew back across the Atlantic, thinking of the week I spent in Uganda, I didn't know that the moment I landed Uganda was going to be all over the media. The day I left Uganda, the president, Yoweri Museveni, ended up signing a very controversial anti-gay/lesbian bill that has been in the works for a long time now. All indicators while I was in Uganda, though, seemed that pressure from from the US and other countries, was potentially going to put a halt to the signing. This didn't happen, and every television at the airport, was ablaze with the news.

This led me to a moment of reflection, and also a moment of trying to reconcile a truly great week with coffee producers I would consider very progressive. Right before I left western Uganda the cooperative I was with presented on their goals and methods for promoting and instilling a culture of equality for the women in the communities they work in. A cooperative progressive enough that other cooperatives around Africa are looking towards these farmers from Uganda to learn better ideologies and methods for creating a more equal culture.

After reflecting for a long time, I came to the realization that reconciling one idea with another, one event with another event, or trying to see anything as black white here is going to be impossible. The reality is that I, and Counter Culture, believe sending someone to jail for 15 years up to a life sentence for their sexuality is not just and right. And that the Ugandan government is wrong on this issue. We also very much believe that trying to punish Uganda the country, through not buying coffee from the producers here is not just and right, as well.

Long story short, it is very easy to see Uganda at this moment in time as a very black and white place — to draw lines in the sand and make a judgment. But I believe that only good things can come from being there and seeing the engagement we can have with farmers that have been passed over for the quality of their coffee and passed over for good prices for years. Working in the most challenging of places which require the patience and long view that we try to embody — that is what makes Counter Culture who we are

Theme

Lot Breakdown of La Golondrina

Right now, we are usually finishing our main harvest (April–July or August) lots of La Golondrina and moving into the mitaca harvest (October–January) lots. This year, however, the producers of La Golondrina didn't have a good mitaca harvest, and we were unable to purchase any of that harvest. This means that we have are still clinging on to the last lot we have from the main harvest. We are going to move through this lot quickly, as we're approaching the time when we normally see some slight quality drop. Nonetheless, I hope that this lot is a noticeable step up from the last one—even though it is only from about a month or two difference.

Notes on the Coffees

La Golondrina – "Past"

This coffee was harvested in April and May 2013. We used this until a few weeks ago.

La Golondrina – "Present"

This coffee was harvested in June and July 2013. This went into La Golondrina a little more than a week ago and will last a couple of months.

Rollout Dates and Availability

La Golondrina has been a year-round single-origin for some time now, but we will likely run out by early May.

Two weeks in Guatemala! This trip was another full one with the opportunity to compare and learn from brand new coffee partners as well as older ones.

Stop 1 — New kids on the block: I spent my first couple of days with a smaller cooperative in Sipacapa called ACAS. They are supported by the exporting cooperative Manos Campesinos. Their coffee had a brief cameo in the Holiday coffee this year and we feel excited for their quality potential down the road.

Stop 2 — Old friends: The bulk of the trip was spent with CODECH in Concepcion Huista, Huehuetenango. We have had some shifting expectations and they have had a shift in leadership over the last year or so and thus mulling it over together was so worthwhile.

Stop 3 — Sheer beauty and mega improvements: I ended in San Juan de Atitlan with La Voz que Clama en el Desierto. Though they haven't been featured as a single origin to date, I feel hopeful that our ongoing communication and their actions to step up coffee quality could mean something good for all on the horizon.

Some themes to look for: common threats to specialty coffee in Guatemala, the importance of cupping at the cooperative level, and key quality improvements across the board.

I have to say that being there for a lengthier stay and over Valentines means that Guatemala is really finding itself close to my heart.